Rosebud (The Simpsons)

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Rosebud


image_caption = A young Mr. Burns with his teddy bear Bobo
episode_no = 85
prod_code = 1F01
airdate = October 21, 1993
show runner = David Mirkin
writer = John Swartzwelder
director = Wesley Archer
couch_gag = The family runs in and sees identical copies of themselves sitting on the couch.cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/simpsons/episodeguide/season5/page3.shtml|title=Rosebud|accessdate=2008-04-12|author=Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian |date=2000|publisher=BBC]
guest_star = The Ramones as themselves
commentary = Matt Groening
David Mirkin
Wes Archer
David Silverman
season = 5

"Rosebud" is the fourth episode of "The Simpsons"' fifth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 21, 1993.cite web|url=http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/0504.htm|title=Rosebud|accessdate=2008-09-02|publisher=The Simpsons.com] The episode begins by showing how on the eve of his birthday, Mr. Burns starts to miss his childhood teddy bear Bobo. The bear ends up in the hands of Maggie Simpson and Burns does everything in his power to get Bobo returned to him.

John Swartzwelder wrote the episode and Wes Archer served as director. "Rosebud" was the first episode that was executive produced by David Mirkin, who was the show runner for the fifth and sixth seasons of the show. The Ramones (Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, C. J. Ramone and Marky Ramone) guest star in the episode as themselves. Reaction to "Rosebud" was largely positive and in 2003 "Entertainment Weekly" placed the episode in second place on their list of the 25 best episodes of "The Simpsons".

Plot

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left|150px|thumb|Homer_and_the_Ramones.]
Smithers finds Mr. Burns having a nightmare in which he constantly murmurs the name "Bobo". Although Burns initially brushes him off, he later begins to tell a story concerning his beloved, lost teddy bear.

As a child, Burns lived with his family and cherished his teddy bear Bobo. But he drops Bobo in the snow when he leaves to live with a "twisted, loveless billionaire". His father shouts after him "Wait, you've forgot your bear! A symbol of your lost youth and innocence!" but he goes unnoticed - all his parents have left after that is his little brother George. Bobo lies in the snow until the spring, when a thaw washes him downriver to New York. There, he is picked up by Charles Lindbergh and flown across the Atlantic Ocean.

Upon arrival in Paris, Lindbergh tosses the bear out the window, where it is caught by a young Adolf Hitler. In 1945, in his Führerbunker in Berlin, Germany, Hitler blames Bobo for losing (and possibly causing) World War II and tosses him away. Bobo is seen again in 1957 onboard the submarine Nautilus headed for the North Pole. He becomes encased in a block of ice until picked up by an ice-gathering expedition. The bag of ice with him in it is sent to Apu's Kwik-E-Mart in Springfield. Bart Simpson buys the bag of ice, finds Bobo and, after remarking "It's a teddy bear! Ugh gross, its probably diseased or something!" gives it to Maggie to play with.

Burns discovers that Maggie has the bear and goes to incredible lengths to get it back, including interrupting all TV shows and cutting off the beer supply to Springfield, in order to get Homer to give it back. However, Maggie loves the bear and Homer's conscience prevents him from taking Bobo away from her. Burns becomes deeply depressed and asks Maggie to look after his bear. Maggie, in an act of pity, lets the desperate Burns have the bear. Burns is overjoyed, but his loving mood does not last.

The episode ends with a "Planet of the Apes" scenario in one million AD (showing apes ruling over man and several Homer Simpson clones as slaves), where a robotic Burns and robotic dog Smithers once again discover Bobo and run off into the sunset.

Production

"Rosebud" was written by John Swartzwelder and was the first episode to be executive produced and run by David Mirkin. Mirkin enjoyed working on the episode so much that he spent "an enormous amount of time on post production" experimenting with various elements of the episode.Mirkin, David. (2004). DVD Commentary for "Rosebud", in "The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season" [DVD] . 20th Century Fox.] Originally, the backstory for Bobo included several much darker scenes, including one where the bear was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The scenes were cut because the writers felt it was in bad taste. The ending of the episode was originally longer, but two segments were cut. The first saw Washington D.C. destroyed by invading Canadian troops, who found Bobo. The second featured the entire planet being over-run by giant Redwoods and spotted owls.

David Silverman describes the episode as "one of the more challenging ones" to direct.Silverman, David. (2004). DVD Commentary for "Rosebud", in "The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season" [DVD] . 20th Century Fox.] Guest stars The Ramones were "gigantic obsessive "Simpsons" fans" and their characters were designed by Wes Archer.Archer, Wed. (2004). DVD Commentary for "Rosebud", in "The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season" [DVD] . 20th Century Fox.] Marky Ramone later called their appearance "a career highlight". [cite news|title=They've done it their way Can't accuse the ramones of being slaves to fashion|date=1993-11-12|accessdate=2008-09-02|publisher="The Virginian-Pilot"|author=Sue Smallwood]

Cultural references

The episode is largely a parody of the 1941 Orson Welles film "Citizen Kane". The title is a reference to Charles Foster Kane's dying word "Rosebud", a sled that Kane had as a child; the teddy bear Bobo is a substitute for Rosebud in this episode, even down to the fact that Burns discards it in the snow when offered a new life of riches and power. The scene where he drops a snow globe, while whispering the name of his lost toy, also parodies Kane's death scene at the start of the film.cite book|last=Richmond |first=Ray|coauthors=Antonia Coffman|title= |year=1997 |publisher=Harper Collins Publishers|id=ISBN 0-00-638898-1|pages=p. 120] The guards outside Mr. Burns's manor chant and march similarly to the Wicked Witch of the West's guards from the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz". The last scene where Mr. Burns's robotic body runs off with Bobo is a reference to the film "Planet of the Apes" in which herds of humans are enslaved by humanoid apes. Burns and Smithers' attempt to steal Bobo from the Simpsons mirrors "", and their sitcom is similar to "The Honeymooners". Both Mr. Burns and Homer make references to the cancellation of the TV series "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo". Mr Burns' brother is revealed to be comedian George Burns, and both Charles Lindbergh and Adolf Hitler were once in possession of Bobo.

Reception

In 2003, "Entertainment Weekly"'s placed "Rosebud" second on their top 25 "The Simpsons" episode list, calling it "the show's most meticulous and manic pop-culture takeoff". [cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,417748~3~0~25bestand1,00.html|title=The Family Dynamic|accessdate=2008-09-01|date=2003-01-29|publisher= Entertainment Weekly] IGN.com ranked The Ramones's performance as the fifteenth best guest appearance in the show's history. [citeweb|url=http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/730/730566p3.html|title=Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances|accessdate=2007-03-23|author=Goldman, Eric; Iverson, Dan; Zoromski, Brian|publisher=IGN] "Vanity Fair" named it the best episode of the show in 2007, calling it, "A perfect episode. Mr. Burns's lamentations for his childhood bear, Bobo, lead to a show-long parody of "Citizen Kane". At once a satire and a tribute, the episode manages to both humanize Mr. Burns and delve deep into Homer's love for his oft-forgotten second daughter, Maggie." [cite news | author = John Orvted | title = Springfield's Best | publisher = Vanity Fair | date = 2007-07-05 | url = http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/08/top10simpsons200708?currentPage=2 | accessdate=2007-07-13]

David Silverman and Matt Groening describe the sequence where Homer eats 64 slices of American cheese as "one of the most hilarious segments ever done".Groening, Matt. (2004). DVD Commentary for "Rosebud", in "The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season" [DVD] . 20th Century Fox.]

References

;Further reading
*cite journal | last = Gray | first = Jonathan, Fordham University | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Imagining America: The Simpsons Go Global | journal = Popular Communication | volume = 5
issue = 2 | pages = 129–148 | publisher = Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
location = Mahwah, New Jersey | date = 2007 | url = http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15405700701294111 | doi = 10.1080/15405700701294111 | id = | accessdate = 2007-10-28| format = abstract| doi_brokendate = 2008-06-23

External links

* [http://snpp.com/episodes/1F01.html "Rosebud"] episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
*imdb episode|0701202|Rosebud